Are you a cyber bully? A lot of people in my age group have been either a victim of a cyber bully or a cyber bully themselves. The internet is a very powerful tool and weapon. No doubt, many children and teens have cried or experienced emotional distress over a comment or conversation that took place via the world wide web.
Online bullying or cyber bullying, is the act of bullying or harassment via the usage of electronic mediums such as e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging, blogs, web pages, and mobile cellular phones. Cyber bullying has a range of severity ranging from mild, such as continued messages via e-mail or aim, to severe, such as threats and hateful messages displayed on websites or defamatory fake blogs about the victim.
Cyber bullying is a lot more common and becoming more “popular” than traditional bulling especially in the cyber age we live in. Cyber bullying is easier to do and “safer” then traditional. The cyber bully has more anonymity than a schoolyard bully. Though there isn’t any real honor behind traditional bullying, hiding behind the mask of a fake online pseudo or a blocked number on a cellular phones is albeit more cowardly.
Victims of cyber bullying are children, adolescents, and teens. It has to have been initiated by one minor to another. However, unlike traditional bully, the cyber bully does not have to be bigger or stronger. The bully and victim could be anyone. The roles are interchangeable.
Children and youths usually do not tell adults about the bullying even though up to 60% has suffered less then 15% told an adult. Some tips for children/youths could be to change their online screen/user name or/and email address. If possible, in the case of text messaging bullying the youth can ask to change their mobile number. Parents can help by talking to the child about cyber bullying. Parents can discuss the consequences of cyber bullying for the victim and bully.
Consequences for the victim could be psychological, mental, emotion, damage, and death. Victims could become distressed enough to commit suicide that is why it is important for parents and schools to stress the importance of talking to a trusted and responsible the consequences for the bully could get a fine or/ and up to 2 years in imprisonment, because it is a federal crime to anon “annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person “via internet or telecommunication”.
A very good visual example of cyber bullying is the movie Odd Girl Out. It is a lifetime move and is based on advice book Odd Girl Out: The hidden culture of aggression in girls by Rachel Simons. The movie lends a voice to the topic of female hostility and bullying. A professor I had once said “Men fight wars but if it were up to the women, they would poison each other while pretending to be friends.” What she said is very true. Most female to female bullying is very psychological and mental, not physical. Emotional damage can sometimes last longer. A person will more likely go home and cry at night over a cruel remark than he or she would over a punch on the arm.
The movie’s lead character is Vanessa. She is beautiful, smart, well-liked, and athletic to boot. However she if part of a popular clique of girls called “The Pack”. The movie shows various types of cyber bullying such as instant messaging harassment and a malevolent website that was dedicated to ‘hating’ Vanessa. “The Pack” soon turns all of Vanessa’s classmates against her and continually tricks her into thinking they were her friends in order to receive homework assistance. They even corner her into the bathroom and say cruel, callous, and belittling things to her. She begins to skip school in order to escape the torment in the hallways.
Her mom in the movie is a single mother and she tries hard to be there. When her mother, Barbara, finds out about the hateful and cruel things done to her daughter, she attempts to ask the school for help. However, the school is unable to do anything because the bullying is non-physical.
Vanessa later attempts suicide but fails after she is goes to a party and finds out it didn’t exist. Barbara finds instant messages from the girls on her daughter’s computer and gives it to the school. The school is finally able to do something and threaten “The Pack” and their accomplices expulsion. After that, the girls and Vanessa make up. At the end of the movie, however, the other girls once again tease her, this time it is by reading aloud instant messaging conversations between Vanessa and her best friend, the leader of the pack. Vanessa is furious and finds the leader, Stacy, and finally stands up to her after another fake offer of friendship. She uncovers the ugliness of the other girl’s character and she flees in tears in finally being reprimanded. Everyone around Vanessa claps for her after she stands up to the bully.
When I was an adolescent, I was a victim of cyber bullying myself. One of the girls who bullied me made a ‘fake’ screen name to harass and bully me. At school, the group of them came up to me a print-out of a supposed AIM conversation between themselves and me. They had created a screen name and said it was mine and used that to IM themselves to say that I said weird things. Even though I denied that it was mine, they said it was and threw the paper at me. The funny thing was that I didn’t even know what some of the stuff that the girls said on ‘my’ screen name meant. Cyber bullying is very common and is very easy for the bullies to get away with.
I believe that this movie would be a great topic opener for group discussion in a school and home setting. It would be a wonderful idea for teacher or schools to have a showing of the movie and later have discussion. Along with that, I believe the schools should implement mentoring programs so that every student can have someone to talk to in the case that they ever need help because of bullying or other problems.
I hope this has served as an eye-opener or a reminder for all who read this. Sticks and stones... Stick and stones...
